All language subtitles for VICE S06E02 Battle for Jerusalem & A Face In The Crowd

This week on Vice:

Trump's move in Israel

sparks outrage across the Middle East.

We're in Gaza on the Israeli border.

This is the day of rage.

There are thousands
of young Palestinians

protesting against Trump's announcement.

And then, the rise of
mass surveillance in China.

You cross the street against the light,

cameras will take a picture of your face

and then post it up
there to embarrass you.

Right now, it's time to change.

In season two, we reported a
story about how crucial Israel is

to the American evangelical community.

Many evangelicals strongly believe

that Israel and, more
specifically, Jerusalem

must be completely controlled
by the Jewish people

in order to trigger the
Second Coming of Christ.

He is going to defeat the Antichrist,

and we are going to crown Jesus Christ

as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Now, 80 percent of
white evangelical voters

supported Donald Trump
in the 2016 election.

In return, President Trump
has given his evangelical base

exactly what they wanted.

It is time to officially recognize

Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Now, this announcement
sparked controversy

and outrage around the world,

but was especially contentious...

... between Israel and Palestine.

So, we sent Gianna Toboni to
see the real-world consequences

of the president's actions.

Since Trump's announcement,

Hamas and some of the other factions...

you can see their flags behind me...

have called for a day of rage,

so this rally is kicking
that off right now.

This protest was just one of many

that erupted across
Israel and Palestine.

You can hear Israeli
gunshots coming over.

A couple of kids have already
been taken away in ambulances.

Can you explain what happened?

Since Trump's announcement,

more than 40 Palestinians

and four Israelis have been killed.

Congress ordered the embassy
to be relocated back in 1995.

Every President since then

has issued waivers delaying the move.

But President Trump had promised not to,

and conservative Israelis were thrilled.

While most of the world
saw Trump's signing

of the order as provoking a conflict,

Prime Minister Netanyahu said

it would actually defuse one.

I share President Trump's commitment

to advancing peace between
Israel and all of our neighbors,

including the Palestinians.

We spoke to Emmanuel Nahshon,

a spokesman for the
Israeli foreign ministry,

who told us why the government

is a hundred percent
in support of the move.

Did the government know
that this was coming?

Had you been talking to them beforehand?

Had you been asking them to do this?

We encouraged the American
administration to do it

because we believed that it
was something very positive.

This announcement actually
should have taken place

many, many years ago.

Jerusalem has been
our capital since 1948.

That's almost 70 years,

and I think that it's good and important

that the president of the most
important country in the world

should actually acknowledge and
recognize that this is our capital.

Not surprisingly, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas

is strongly objecting to Trump's move.

Abbas is president of
the Palestinian Authority

and head of the Fatah party,

but his grip on power is weakening.

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi is a
long-time Palestinian leader

who's been instrumental
in the peace process

for more than 30 years.

How significant is
President Trump's recognition

of Jerusalem as Israel's capital?

This recognition by President
Trump represents to us

the epitome of
irresponsibility, recklessness,

and a position that has become a
game-changer in the whole region.

He has undermined the
stability and security,

not just of Palestine, but
of the region as a whole

by provoking people's
sentiments, people's feelings.

It has made the chances of
peace much more difficult.

That's because for
centuries, Jerusalem has been

a holy city for three of
the world's major religions.

We're on a rooftop in
the Old City of Jerusalem.

Right in front of me,
you see this gold dome.

That's what Muslims refer
to as Al Aqsa Mosque,

and what Jews refer to as Temple Mount.

Muslims say that that's where
Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

And then you look right over here,
and there are a series of churches.

And this church has the
big gold cross on the top.

That's where Christians
say Jesus resurrected.

Different religious communities

have been coexisting here for centuries,

which is part of why Trump's decision is

so controversial not only
here, but around the world.

Trump's move has made the
peace process nearly impossible.

But efforts have been
faltering for years,

in part due to divisions between
rival Palestinian parties...

the more moderate Fatah
and the more hardline Hamas.

With the failure of the
peace process to deliver,

Hamas became stronger.

Now it demands to have a greater role.

Who is Fatah? Who is Hamas?

Fatah is the oldest party.

It started in the '60s.

It became the backbone

of the Palestine
Liberation Organization.

Hamas is a newcomer.

Hamas is an offshoot of
the Muslim Brotherhood.

But Hamas resorted to violence

after it won, of course, elections.

There were difficulties
relinquishing power,

and in Gaza, Hamas took over all
the security offices by violence.

This rift has really weakened us.

Right now, this is a very crucial point.

Since this bloody conflict,

Hamas has been largely confined
to Gaza by Israeli forces,

while Fatah controls the
remaining Palestinian territories.

We're in Gaza City.

This is the 30th anniversary of Hamas.

This party is incredibly popular.

You look around, there are
hundreds of thousands of people,

many of them waving green Hamas flags.

People are very clearly not
happy with Trump's latest move.

Why do you support Hamas?

We got a bunch of kids
in military uniforms

carrying fake guns and a few flags.

You know, it's... it's a family affair.

Can you tell me about
your kids' outfits?

Hamas is no stranger to military force.

In their 30-year history,
they've gone to war

three times with Israel in Gaza,

most recently in 2014.

The US considers Hamas to
be a terrorist organization.

The group uses tunnels to
smuggle weapons into Israel,

and it's launched suicide bombings

and rocket attacks on Israeli targets.

After the embassy announcement,

rockets fired out of Gaza led

to Israeli air strikes
that killed two Gazans.

Mahmoud Al-Zahar is one of
the original founders of Hamas

and remains a senior figure
within the organization.

Just a few days ago,

you said that "Hamas is here
to prove to the whole world

"that resistance is our only option,

and we will continue until
we reach Al Aqsa Mosque,"

which of course is in Jerusalem.

But realistically, how do you do it?

I mean, there are massive concrete walls

guarded by very powerful
Israeli Defense Forces.

What is the relationship right
now between Hamas and Fatah?

That pro-resistance mentality

is starting to rip Palestinians apart,

and the friction has intensified

as the nearly two million Palestinians

living in Gaza are physically locked in

by closed borders.

Meaning civilians in Gaza

often can't get the necessities

and medical care they need.

What will happen with your
health if you aren't able

to get out of Gaza to
get that taken care of?

Tensions have been growing
as the PA has been leveraging

the power they have over Gaza's
resources against the people there.

As Palestine's deepening
political divisions

increasingly impact daily life,

the people there are
desperate for reconciliation.

How would your life change if
there was a true reconciliation

between Hamas and Fatah?

But despite ongoing negotiations

between Palestine's political factions,

the acrimony only
appears to be increasing.

In fact, in March of 2018,

Hamas allegedly attempted to
assassinate Prime Minister Hamdallah,

and the group remain
resolute in its stand

against both Israel and
the Palestinian Authority.

One of the terms of the reconciliation

is that Hamas put down their weapons.

No, no. Is... is that something
you would ever consider?

Although they remain divided,
Palestinians are united

in opposing Israel's
complete control of Jerusalem.

As support for the two
sparring parties is dropping,

support for armed resistance is rising.

The ramifications are enormous,

and the consequences
will have a ripple effect

within the region and beyond.

Not only does it inflame sentiments,

but it really provokes people,

uh, to take action.

In our modern age, mass surveillance

is now becoming the norm.

From local police using innovations
in audio and video technology

to track criminal activities,

to more clandestine
methods used to monitor

the communication, movement,
and lifestyle habits,

of everyday citizens.

Every part of a private life today

is found on someone's phone.

We used to say man's home is his castle.

Today, a man's phone is his castle.

New advances in facial
recognition technology

are being paired with
artificial intelligence

and machine learning, so that today,

cameras can not only
immediately identify people

with remarkable precision,

but also log and track this data.

Elle Reeve traveled to China to see

how this new technology
is already being deployed

and the unintended, or in some
cases, intended consequences

it might have for
humanity going forward.

China has the largest
video surveillance network

in the world and plans to expand it

to more than 600 million
cameras over the next two years.

With the rise in facial recognition
and artificial intelligence,

it feels more like someone is watching
all those cameras at all times.

Hi, I'm Elle, I'm in China,

and I just got busted for jaywalking

with facial recognition technology.

Stations like this one are part of
a new plan by the Chinese government

to publicly shame citizens
caught breaking the law.

If you cross the street
against the light,

cameras with facial
recognition technology

will take a picture of your face,

cross-reference it
with your government ID,

and then post it up
there to embarrass you.

But China isn't embracing facial
recognition just to catch jaywalkers.

The technology is starting to appear

just about anywhere you can imagine.

It helps make menu recommendations
at your local fast-food spot.

You can also pay for
your food with your face.

It even curbs the waste of
toilet paper at public bathrooms.

My gift.

This is all I get for
the next nine minutes.

Then I come back again
and I try to get more?

Chinese tech companies
are now at the cutting edge

of developing new and sophisticated
ways to do video analysis.

Right now we're going to SenseTime,

one of the biggest companies involved
in developing that technology.

Oh, that's me.

So you know when someone's late?

Yes!

But despite all the goofy
applications we were first shown,

much of the tech SenseTime is developing

has serious real-world implications.

So it can track suspicious
activity within a large crowd.

Are you ever bothered
by having no anonymity

because there are cameras
watching all the time?

But the reach of this technology

goes way beyond public areas

and increasingly infiltrates
private spaces as well.

We're going into a
government housing complex.

Instead of doormen, they
have security cameras

with facial recognition technology,

and we're gonna go see how it works.

Ah.

This is the number of visitors,

this is all of the residents,

and this is our most
popular person with 142.

How much more is your system doing
that you're not allowed to show us?

In China, there are few protections

limiting how much information
the government can collect

about its 1.4 billion citizens.

Everyone over the age
of 16 is required to have

an official state-issued ID card

that the government now wants to use

to centralize all that information.

And China is investing
heavily in tech companies

to help transform that government data

into a virtually omniscient
surveillance network.

One of those companies is Megvii

It recently received
a capital investment

of nearly half a billion dollars,

part of which is from
a state-run VC fund.

But the name chosen for its
premiere piece of technology

is a bit of a tell.

Skynet?

- Yes.
- What is that?

Uh-huh.

So, okay, in The
Terminator, Skynet is evil,

- rains down death from the sky.
- Yeah.

But in China, Skynet is good.

So, how do you think your
facial recognition technology

will change China?

So, when it looks out onto a crowd,

it's tracking all these faces,

and it's cross-checking
those faces against what?

And how many fugitives have been
apprehended through this system?

Wow.

In one year? Wow.

So, what you're working on
now already seems like sci-fi.

What do you think the future will
look like in, like, five years?

But that's like a horror show.

If you like spit gum on the sidewalk...

And your points will go down?

But that future isn't too far away.

Now China's government is testing

a new social credit score system

which would rank its citizens
based on their online behavior.

While it won't fully
roll out until 2020,

starting this year, China will
ban people with a bad score

from booking flights and train rides.

We spoke with a lawyer
who represents clients

considered to be untrustworthy
by the communist government

about what this could mean
for the future of China.

What are the risks of
this kind of program?

What do you think of
the government's argument

that a social credit system will
create a meritocratic society?

But China isn't the
only place experimenting

with facial recognition applications.

An airport in the Middle
East is already planning

face-scanning aquariums
at security checkpoints.

In Europe, state-sanctioned
and private initiatives

are testing this technology
in multiple locations,

from train stations to online classes.

And in the US, private
companies are investing millions

to secure government contracts,

which could make machine
learning and image recognition

a regular part of police work.

Law professor Andrew Guthrie Ferguson

is a leading expert
on big data policing.

He spoke to us about the ramifications

that these technologies could present.

When you look at China's
system of facial recognition

and video surveillance, what do you see?

I see the future and it scares me.

If you have the capability to
identify people and patterns,

and you can show association
about where you go

and why you're going there,

it really will change the relationship

between citizens and their governments.

In China, the government has
heavily invested in these companies

developing facial
recognition technology.

In the US, it's still
more in the private sector.

Can you explain the difference?

So, much of the story
of big data policing

has been small startup companies

or even sometimes the big tech companies

that are pushing police
to use new technologies.

One of the open questions
is, "Who owns this data?"

Take police body cams, right?

Right now, there is sort of an arms race

of people trying to
sell police body cameras

to police all across America.

All of that data from
all of those officers

is actually really valuable

for other non-law enforcement purposes.

You're really capturing
patterns of society.

And if the private companies can
use that data for other things,

even sell it for other reasons,
they're gonna wanna profit.

Part of the reason why we've seen
this move toward big data policing,

is because it sounds
like an objective move

to sort of turn the page from
some of the racial tension

we've seen after Ferguson

and after Baltimore,
after Staten island,

to something that sounds more objective.

"Don't worry. This is data-driven."

The problem is, the data comes from us.

And if you're not cautious
about how you're collecting

that information and then using it,

you're just gonna reify the same biases.

So, how slippery is the
slope we're standing on?

How quickly could this
be implemented here?

The technology you see in China exists,

it's working, and it can
do the same thing here.

Right now, our sort of regulatory
legislative action just isn't there.

We don't have protections
to say it couldn't happen.

Young people growing up in America today

are pretty used to being
surveilled by their phones

and their Facebooks and
their Snapchats, and the rest.

We might have different
constitutional protections,

but it's still unsettled,

and it's an open question
about how we react,

and I hope we start asking
those questions to react now.